Bunny Grey

Laster-month (yeah, now more like 2 months ago) I decided to finally take the plunge and repaint the main living area of our house.

ART- PROVO CITY CENTER TEMPLE, JAN 2016 -- SIMON DEWEY -- HALF DOME, YOSEMITE, SEPT 2014

When we moved here almost 12 years ago we fell in love with a two-tone green that we saw in a model home out in Eagle Mt. We didn't buy that home but I did get the name and manufacturer of the paint they used (khaki green and grey birch). I hadn't found any colors I liked better until now.

I'd seen a photo of Stephanie Nielson's walls (aka NieNie) on Instagram. It was Nimbus Grey by Benjamin Moore. If you do a quick Google search you'll see that it plays very similar to the color you are looking at here on the bottom portion of the wall. Ah, but when I painted it on the wall it looked VERY BLUE! Pretty, but not the color I wanted.

After much looking and 2 pints of *test paint* I finally figured out the colors I really wanted... behold Bunny Grey and Sweatshirt Grey (Yeah, and I can't help it that BM doesn't spell GREY in my favorite spelling!)

Eons ago, at least 25 years, I got a very cool color-changer shirt! But since I worked on the playground for 4 hours every day it quickly lost its changer-ness. At some point at least 16+ years ago I decided that it was now my painting shirt. That dark brown is from Bekah's house when we painted her *new* house in May 2000! The pants are somewhat newer... the first time I remember relegating them to the status of work pants was when I put the laminate floor down in Palmdale, 2003! Hey, no point in getting rid of perfectly good work clothes!! And since I'm into wardrobe details, these are my first pair of Skechers Go Walks from 2014.

JOANIE- THE PAINTER 7 SEPTEMBER 2016

Anyway, I got out my trusty painting clothes and, over the week, I painted the main floor rooms. We have 11' ceilings and I was so GRATEFUL for my Little Giant Ladder! So stable, so easy to used, so stable... did I mention that it is very stable?? Previously we had a ladder that wanted to fold up if you sneezed!

I am so very pleased with the finished results of my lovely home. Since I was changing up the paint I thought it was also time to change up the decor. We had an Asian themed front room since we moved here.

I knew I wanted to incorporate this painting that hung in my childhood home over the piano. It is of Crater Lake, Oregon. I'm guessing that it is at least 75-80 years old as it is unlikely that Mom bought it after they moved to Greenville in 1946; maybe a wedding present?

When Mom died and we each took the things we wanted. Sue, by common agreement, took this painting. She had it hanging in various houses over the years but several years ago she asked if I wanted it since it was just being stored in her garage. YES!!

This is the only photo I have of it in my Greenville home. We had board and batten walls that I loved! You'll also notice that it had some *demented angel wings* (Sue's description) on the corners and center of the hand-made frame. She removed them but that left the wood showing through.

I didn't want to change the color of the frame, not only sentimental reasons, but because it was perfect with my new wall colors.

I used a silver paint plus some blue and black that I sponged on. I'm so pleased with my refurbishment!

Our new front door (and the Oakland Temple). I made new covers for the chair and got some dandy new throw rugs at my favorite Costco,

And made new covers for the throw pillow. My favorite quilt got a new home on the back of the couch instead of the dining room table.

I painted the fridge hole the darker accent color on a whim (I didn't want to have to buy more lighter paint!) Gordon suggested I do the rest of that small wall around the pantry. I love it.

Our dining room set works just fine with the new grey walls and my favorite Resurgam (Latin for "I Shall Rise Again') print looks lovely too. And my wonderful RuthAnn/Dennis handmade star would look wonderful ANYWHERE!

I added the *stained glass* film to the half-circle window above the back door. When the sun is shining through it really *blues* up the room.

So here's hoping that it will be 12 years before I decided that I want to change the paint color again! Seriously, I love the finished results and really don't mind painting!

The Best Move I've Ever Made!

For a girl who was born and raised in the same little house in Greenville, CA, I've sure moved around a lot; so I know a thing or two about moving! The sad part is that 17 of the 25 moves happened between 1970-80! (That pretty much sums up that decade of my life!)

Other than the first 17 years and 10 months I spent in my first home the longest I've lived at any address was 8 years and 10 months...

Until now!

We've lived here, on our little quarter acre of heaven for 10 years. As Gordon and I were driving to the Temple yesterday I mentioned to him something that has been rolling around in my little head but finally found its way out-

THIS IS THE BEST MOVE I'VE EVER MADE!

(PHOTO TAKEN MAY 2014)

Gordon asked why so I started counting off the blessings (name them one by one!)

• We are close to many of our children and grandchildren and get to interact with them on a frequent basis.
• We have a paid for home.
• We are able to serve in the Temple often.
• We have the privilege of being ordinance workers- which has brought greater meaning to the wonderful blessings administered there.
• We live in a wonderful neighborhood and community.
• We are surrounded by good people trying to do the right thing.
• We live in the mountains (a plus for this mountain-born girl).
• We live in an area with a lower cost of living.
• We have four seasons!

The list could go on and on. But I just wanted to share here, publicly, my great gratitude to my Heavenly Father who truly has "opened the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that there is not room enough to receive."

Going Home

I've heard it said, "You can never go home again!" But this time that statement isn't accurate. Yes, things have changed... but I can still feel the love that always existed in my little childhood home.

My folks moved to Greenville, CA on June 19, 1946. This is what their new little home looked like. The front of the house was moved from Engle Mine and a fellow named Pat Becker added on the back section (not easily seen in this photo) which included a small kitchen, laundry room and back porch. All told it was 800 square feet.

In 1970 Mom fixed up the house and it looked so neat and tidy. Mom loved her gardens, they were always beautiful.

After Mom's death in 1977 we sold the home to a childhood friend and he subsequently sold it to the present owners- Bill and Judi. This is how our little home looked on Monday afternoon.

This is not the first time I've knocked on the door and asked if I could take photos (of course, always with lots of tears! What a cry-baby!) Bill and Judi are so kind and accommodating! They give me the grand tour- I'm always careful because I don't want to invade their home and privacy, so I didn't take photos inside the house (and now I wish I had). The blue rose-patterned wall paper is still on the walls in Mom's bedroom (makes me cry), they have fun antiques all over that bring out the character of our little home. They removed some cabinets and counter in the kitchen and found the old exterior wall from the Engle Mine house! Judi has decorated with lots of old cast iron implements... it just makes me happy. They moved the hot water heater out to the back porch when it had to be replaced and reclaimed almost 2 feet of precious floor space in the kitchen. It's amazing how much bigger the kitchen feels. They've replaced the old trash-burner with a cute little pot-bellied stove that lives right next to the range. Then over by the windows is another antique cook stove. I could feel the love and happiness in our little house.

But this, THIS is what sent me over the top! I stepped onto the back porch and saw the reclaimed chicken house!

As stated this little building started life as the chicken house. (Photo below taken March 1963)




But, by the time I can remember anything, the chickens were gone and it was used as a dog house, then when I got Blue it became the *barn* where we stored Blue's feed. (Cindy commented that whenever people talk about chickens she smells hay and Omolene... definitely NOT a chicken smell.)

I can't even begin to tell you how happy this makes me. Bill added on two wings to the old building (always having to replace old sinking foundations!) The west side has windows to let in the warm spring sun and can be used for a potting shed. But Judi's added a tiny pot-bellied stove and couch. She said they love to sit in there with a hot-toddy and watch it snow. Bill has a fun work area in the old part of the building. A serendipitous shortage of roofing (because they enlarged it) meant he added some clear corrugated roofing that doubles as a sky light!  (Can I just say I'd love to have a sweet little building like this!)

Behind this happy little building is a grassy area and some pavers where they have their bar-b-que and this great old machine!  Rust in Peace!

Along the east property line dozens of volunteer locust trees have sprouted up creating a little grove.

When you buy old buildings you always have lots of work to do. Bill has replaced the foundation under all of the buildings, including the house. The area under the back porch used to be enclosed.  I love how they've added lattice and climbing vines.  I'll bet it is heaven on the porch come a summer evening!

I realized I didn't get any photos of the outside of the shop except for this one...

Bill found this and says that it was made for Daddy in 1958 when he was recuperating from hernia surgery. He unscrewed it and sent it home with me. He had also found Daddy's old business license and unemployment insurance papers from 1946 and 1947. He sent those home with me as well.

These are such precious pieces of memorabilia.

After a quick tour of the shop, we went upstairs to *the apartment* (that's how we referred to the area above the shop) Mom did some remodeling up there in the early 1960s and put in two bedrooms. Judi and Bill now use them as their space. I loved Judi's room with book cases, sewing machine, little couch and some of Bill's original blown-glass art. Judi is also working on a faux-finish on the floor in the unfinished area. It looks great!

It is amazing to see the trees that Mom planted in the late 1960s- mature and stately! I can see the love that has gone into her apple tree.  Thank you Bill and Judi.

And this spruce... well, what can I say? It's ginormous.  You can see that the locusts have also volunteered on this side of the driveway.  What you can't see is a sweet little grove of quakies that grow along the fence behind the spruce.

Going home was such a treat... yes, some things are different but the constant is the loving presence of this little piece of property with it's odd assortment of building.  I know Elsie and Jake are pleased to see what's happening to the *old place*!

168- Camille's New Home

Today Camille moved into her new house today! What a wonderful event!

Wonderful in so many ways:

• She's joined the ranks of home-ownership where one doesn't just keep paying rent out the window each month,
  
• She and Kevin will start their new lives together in their own house
• She gets to decorate the way she wants... no management group telling her she can't hang any pictures, use bed risers, etc,
  
• And, my personal favorite, she won't be moving every 6-12 months to a new apartment!!!!

Welcome home, Miss Camille! We are so proud of you.

039- *New Boots*

I was getting ready to type my blog post title and this popped into my mind.

Funny story...

When Spencer was just a little guy, maybe 3, he found a pair of child size cowboy boots that used to be mine. He LOVED them, but they were too big, and frankly, too worn out. We were able to find him some boots just his size. The first Sunday after getting his boots we walked into church and instead of turning into *our* row Spencer proceeded straight up to the podium, proudly stomped one of his boots down in front of Bishop Lenker and excitedly stated, "NEW BOOTS!" Bishop Lenker laughed and so did we... what a funny little guy! (wow... 20-something years ago)

So this-day my house is getting to do the Spencer-routine and proudly state, "New Boots!" (or, perhaps, new hat!)


FONT- Albemarle Swash, ACTION- DPMoms Perfect Workflow, BRUSH- RhonnaFarrer_2ps_SnapShot_Horizontal6, JasonGaylor Valentine TEXTURE- kimi haze texture

Why a new roof? Our wind storm two weeks ago did more damage than we could see to the roof. The insurance adjuster said that 60% of our roof needed to be replaced... so we are getting a new roof for 40 cents on the dollar. Perhaps not what I wanted to spend my money on right now, but still a blessing.

032- All Mine

Do you notice anything different about my house? Look closely... you might just see it! This house has no mortgage! Even 5.5 years ago I would never have dreamed that we would get a house paid for in my life time. But here it is... a wonderful blessing poured out upon us. We are so blessed.


FONT- Albemarle Swash, ACTION- DPMoms Perfect Workflow, (A2D)_Lomo V_2, OVERLAY- old photo 6, film cracked 2, Old Film TTV, BRUSH- RhonnaFarrer_2ps_SnapShot_Horizontal6, Skeletal Mess birds, SkeletalMess Clouds

352- Main Street

This is the fifth Christmas we've spent in Springville... it always amazes me when I realize that! We've watched downtown make a transformation with a new City Office complex being completed this year.

My nicest holiday surprise was when they put up this year's decorations. They are so pretty, so simple. Tonight I braved the cold so I could capture the beauty of Main Street.

295- Lamb's Ear

I love this time of year! It is summer's last hurrah! The flowers love the cooler weather and thus reward us with additional blossoms. They are thick, fragrant and beautiful. I found that my lamb's ear had bloomed again. This has got to be one of my favorite perennials! I love to feel them. They are soft and furry just like Harley's ears!

I first became acquainted with this plant when I lived in Palmdale and a sweet sister taught a gardening class. I could never find them when I lived there. But here they were, living happily at my Springville house. Just another one of those blessed and happy things...

270- The Windows of Heaven

Most of you know the scripture in Malachi 3:8-12 where the Lord promises that if we pay our tithing he will "open the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it."

I'm here to tell my Windows on Heaven story tonight. Way back in 1997, at the bottom of the housing crash in Palmdale (Palmdale has a very volatile housing market with high peaks and "way down in the valley" lows) we were able to purchase this lovely house. We felt so blessed to be able to afford it, as we had been hit very hard by said crash. We lovingly restored our house with paint, carpet, landscaping, trees, more paint, wood floors, paths, more landscaping... etc. There was a lot of love and sweat in this happy house.


(our old Palmdale house today newly loved and painted by the newest owners)

I never thought I would leave Palmdale. We'd raised out *little* family there. We had dear friends and we'd put down deep roots in our 23 years. But then some of our dear friends announced that they were moving to Utah! Wait... how could that be? They were just as connected and rooted in Palmdale as we were. But Nancy explained that they were following the Prophet's counsel to get out of debt. I realized that our wonderful *blessing* home had become even more of a blessing since it had tripled in value! We, too, could sell our home that we loved, go to a cheaper housing market, buy a modest home and have it nearly paid for with the equity! After 18 years of paying child support I never thought we would ever get a paid for home. But here we are... nearly there. We owe less on our present home that many people rack up in a month on credit card debt!

What makes all of this so poignant to me is that the Palmdale-crash-cycle has continued. Less than a year after we sold our Palmdale home it had quadrupled in value!!! Some poor soul bought it and then the bottom dropped out of the market and they lost all. My *happy home* sat vacant for over a year. But it was just sold in July at one third of the market high! I hope that *my* happy home continues to be a safe haven for its current occupants.

Do I think that all of this was just a coincidence? Not in the least! The Lord honors his promises. When we obey He is bound to bless us! Will the blessings come right away? without any trials? Probably not, but when we do what is right and are obedient the Lord truly does open the windows of heaven and pours out a blessing that there is not room enough to receive. How grateful I am for that principle. How grateful I am for a loving Heavenly Father.

250- Willow Sunset

Sometimes I can hardly believe that we have been in our home in Utah over four and a half years. My home feels like an old friend. I love my somewhat east facing bedroom window. I can see Maple Mountain in all of her various states of glory and on summer evenings the canyon breeze comes gently in. When I walk in to our bedroom the big chair just welcomes me and vies for an opportunity to be used for reading instead of my comfy bed!

Then there is my somewhat west facing *play room* window. This is where I spend most of my time. I love the view from my window. I can see the neighborhood, my front yard, the mountain range just north of us where all of our wildlife come from, AND my lovely globe willow tree.

I feel in love with this variety of tree almost 30 years ago. I love the way the branches reach upward and in a gentle breeze it looks like a ladies skirt swishing. This time of year the sun sets directly behind it. What a beautiful sight.

123- Reaping Where They Sowed

All of my adult life I've moved into houses that would be referred to as a *fixer-upper*. Usually the yards were non-existent and the inside was in need of lots of help.

This house...



... what a blessing to move here and find that the previous owners had put much so love and hard work into it. I am reaping what they sowed!

I could just start enumerating the list of everything they did that I love and am so thankful for; but for today I will sing the praises of my Japanese Maple. It is planted in a nice ivy-covered flowerbed just outside my front window. I love the color red (almost as much as I love the color green!) This beautiful tree gives me a seasonal show of color and beauty. It starts in the spring with this bright, clear scarlet. It has little dancing fairies that play in the afternoon breeze... [can you see their little tutus?]



Through the summer it fades to an orange-y red and then a yellowish-mottled-green. In the fall it returns to a similarly beautiful scarlet that it displayed in the spring.

What a delight!

FONTS- Problem Secretary, CK Cursive, BRUSH- KPertiet_LedgerFrames, CoffeeShop Texture 1, Selective vignette. I picked the selective vignette color from the leaves... I love the effect.

020 Dreaming of Home

Last night I dreamed that I was back in my little hometown of Greenville, California. It is way up north in northern CA... in the middle of nowhere!

In the dream I had my camera and I was so excited to be able to take photos of my little town for my project 365. I was right there by the high school and wanted to take a photo of the stand of trees east and north of the "new" gym (keep in mind that I graduated 39 years ago!!). I could hear the wind whispering through the pine needles, I could feel soft air on my face, I could smell that sharp resiny tang of the forest... and then I woke up! I wanted to cry!

You see Greenville is over 600 miles from where I live now and all of my family is long gone. So I had to do the next best thing (and in this case, it is a very sad substitute). I dug through my photos and found one of my favorites taken from our back porch in 1966. The grove of trees just to the left of the low buildings, which is the k-12 campuses, are the trees I wanted to photograph in my dream, but from the Hwy looking towards my house. (the opposite direction)


FONTS- Problem Secretary, CK Cursive, BRUSH- KPertiet_LedgerGrids-9, Orton Effect

I took growing up in the lush Plumas National Forest for granted. Now I realize what a treasure I had. I used to love to ride my horse through those trees or I would walk past them on the way to my friend, Crystal Slapnik's house.

I wrote to my wonderful niece and asked if she had any recent photos of Greenville... sadly she didn't either. I can share one that shows similar trees taken at the Taylorsville Rodeo in 2002.

(Scrap Matters sm_caj_hsg_frame)

DN and I discussed the fact that we will have a different set of eyes on our next visit to Greenville. But even at that how can a camera capture all the emotion left in that little mountain town?

this will always be HOME to me

When I read this week's challenge over at JessicaSprague.com I knew immediately what I would scrap! The challenge (I won't make you click the link unless you want to) this week was to use JS Home Away From Home kit and (duh) scrap about home. There were all sorts of muses for those who didn't know which way to go. But like I said, I knew immediately.

HOME... it will always be my childhood home in Greenville, CA. I think that my childhood was near idyllic. I lived in the ultimate safe environment! Lock our doors? We didn't even have locks on our doors! Greenville was very small, about 1500 people, everybody knew everybody. It was the consummate "small town".

(click to enlarge)
Top left-right: 639 Main Street 1970, The girls 1974, Joanie & Gypsy 1964
Bottom left - right: Sue, Ann, Joanie,Easter 1957; Daddy's new car with house in the background,d 1963; My wonderful tree house, 1964 , Daddy mowing the lot; Joanie on Blue Boy at Gold Diggers Celebration, Greenville's Main St; My favorite view off our back porch, all 1966.

As I edited my photos I knew that I needed to use that wonderful orton effect that Kimi taught us several weeks ago. To me, this is how I see my memories... all through the orton effect filter! The colors are very vivid, warm and inviting... a little hazy, but, oh so sweet!

It wasn't until I was married and had moved away from home (all the way to Yorktown, VA) that one of my new friends informed me that I'd come from a "broken-home"! (This was also the same kind friend who informed me I had Fred Flintstone Feet! Yeh, great friend! But I digress!)

Our little home was only 800 square feet. As I looked for photos of our house I realized that almost none existed. Why? Because we had an old home with asphalt siding that was literally falling off. Mom always posed us in the driveway or by the trees, never in front of our house. I found the photo that I took of Daddy's new car with the house in the background. It wasn't until I moved out in 1970 that Mom could finally afford to fix the place up... and she did!

As I look back I realize that we really were quite poor. But I never knew it at the time. We always had food to eat, a place to sleep and lots and lots of love... the most important quality for a real home.

I have lived many place, very happily, but Greenville will always be HOME!